LONG-DELAYED FILM IS SIMILAR TO MAJOR HOLLYWOOD FAILURE
Hollywood fantasy adventure The Last Airbender (2010) was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy, but it received so much negativity that no further films were made.
Lead star Dev Patel later admitted to disliking the film and regretted being part of the failed franchise. There are a lot of similarities between that M Night Shyamalan-directed dud and forthcoming Bollywood superhero film Brahmastra.
The Last Airbender is based around super humans who can control different elements and saw Dev Patel play the Fire Nation prince. Meanwhile, Ranbir Kapoor plays a hero with the ability to use fire as a superpower.
Dev Patel in The Last Airbender
Brahmastra has also been beset with problems, including multiple delays, and reportedly going way over budget. But most interestingly, it too is supposed to be the first part of a trilogy, with parts two and three looking increasingly unlikely. For any sequels, the special-effects laden superhero film would have to smash box-office records to recoup the huge cost of making it and then turn over a big profit on top of that. With it having a non-holiday release on September 9, which is generally a quiet time for cinema goers, that has made it highly unlikely.
Also, Brahmastra being announced in 2014 means it has taken around eight years to reach the big screen, so it’s improbable that lead stars Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt would waste more prime years of their career, by committing to any further sequels. Apart from the box office, the film would have to be good to warrant any kind of sequel interest. The recently released trailer has received a mixed reaction and not generated the kind of thunderous excitement as other recent Indian blockbusters like RRR movie and KGF: Chapter 2.
Amitabh Bachchan in Brahmastra
One key person that doesn’t seem to be too impressed with the trailer is lead star Amitabh Bachchan and that could be potentially devastating for the franchise. Despite being the most prolific social media user in Bollywood, the legendary actor was the only Brahmastra cast member to not share the trailer online when it released, and this is a big deal. Whenever a trailer is unveiled, all key cast members use their respective platforms to share it and often, they will promote ones they are not in, just like Bachchan has done previously. His lack of interest won’t help the movie to achieve the huge numbers it needs to do.
Nagarjuna in Brahmastra
Many have been less than impressed with the fact that there are big named heroes, seemingly facing an adversary played by TV star Mouni Roy – it’s difficult to understand why a bigger name wasn’t cast as the antagonist. Audiences also know that Indian movies will now be available on streaming sites within weeks of release.
More than anything, the biggest thing that will work against the film is the huge boycott of Bollywood films that has taken place in the past two years. Hindi movies have been clocking up shockingly low figures due to an ongoing boycott that started shortly after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June 2020. While other Indian films across multiple languages have thrived in cinemas, Hindi releases have struggled to draw in audiences in a way never seen before. This has resulted in a record-breaking number of films becoming commercial disasters.
So, Brahmastra will either be a complete washout and kill the franchise, or more likely it will have a decent opening but won’t generate the big numbers it needs. This will likely ensure this film won’t have the planned sequels and become one of Bollywood’s costliest mistakes. When all the calculations are done, the main positive for Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will be they met on the sets, fell in love, got married and are now expecting their first child. Beyond that, Brahmastra will likely be Bollywood’s The Last Airbender.
Dr Malhotra, an advisor to US health secretary Robert F Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Action, also serves as Chief Medical Advisor to Make Europe Healthy Again, where he campaigns for wider access to vaccine information.
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a British Asian cardiologist, and research psychologist Dr Andrea Lamont Nazarenko have called on medical bodies to issue public apologies over Covid vaccine mandates, saying they have contributed to public distrust and conspiracy theories.
In a commentary published in the peer-reviewed journal Science, Public Health Policy and the Law, the two argue that public health authorities must address the shortcomings of Covid-era policies and acknowledge mistakes.
They note that while early pandemic decisions were based on the best available evidence, that justification cannot continue indefinitely.
“Until the most urgent questions are answered, nothing less than a global moratorium on Covid-19 mRNA vaccines — coupled with formal, unequivocal apologies from governments and medical bodies for mandates and for silencing truth seekers — will suffice,” they write.
Dr Malhotra, an advisor to US health secretary Robert F Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Action, also serves as Chief Medical Advisor to Make Europe Healthy Again, where he campaigns for wider access to vaccine information.
In the article titled Mandates and Lack of Transparency on COVID-19 Vaccine Safety has Fuelled Distrust – An Apology to Patients is Long Overdue, the authors write that science must remain central to public health.
“The pandemic demonstrated that when scientific integrity is lacking and dissent is suppressed, unethical decision-making can become legitimised. When this happens, public confidence in health authorities erodes,” they write.
They add: “The role of public health is not to override individual clinical judgment or the ethics that govern medical decision-making. This is essential because what once appeared self-evident can, on further testing, prove false – and what may appear to be ‘safe and effective’ for one individual may be harmful to another.”
The article has been welcomed by international medical experts who say rebuilding trust in public health institutions is essential.
“It might be impossible to go back in time and correct these major public health failings, which included support of futile and damaging vaccine mandates and lockdowns and provision of unsupported false and misleading claims regarding knowledge of vaccine efficacy and safety, but to start rebuilding public confidence in health authorities (is) the starting point,” said Dr Nikolai Petrovsky, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Disease, Australian Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Institute, Adelaide.
“This article is a scholarly and timely review of the public health principles that have been so clearly ignored and traduced. Without a complete apology and explanation we are doomed to pay the price for failure to take up the few vaccines that make a highly significant contribution to public health,” added Angus Dalgleish, Emeritus Professor of Oncology, St George’s University Hospital, UK.
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